Hugo Chávez arrives on arms ‘shopping spree’

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela flies to Moscow today amid reports that he is shopping for weapons, including helicopters, submarines,
tanks and missiles.

At a time of renewed tensions between Mr Chávez’s Government and neighbouring Colombia, the firebrand Venezuelan leader is reported to be ready to
buy at least 100 T72 and T90 tanks at a cost of up to $500 million (£300 million), which would double his army’s tank force.

With even more recent direct trade relations of petrol exports with Iran, it looks like things are going to get interesting between the US and
Venezuela.

The diplomatic ties between Iran and Venezuela go back almost 50 years and until recently amounted to little more than the routine exchange of
diplomats. With the election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005, the relationship dramatically changed.

Today Mr. Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez have created a cozy financial, political and military partnership rooted in a shared
anti-American animus. Now is the time to develop policies in this country to ensure this partnership produces no poisonous fruit.

Signs of the evolving partnership began to emerge in 2006, when Venezuela joined Cuba and Syria as the only nations to vote against a U.N. Atomic
Energy Agency resolution to report Iran to the Security Council over its failures to abide U.N. sanctions to curtail its nuclear program. A year
later, during a visit by Mr. Chávez to Tehran, the two nations declared an "axis of unity" against the U.S. and Ecuador. And in June of this year,
while protesters lined the streets of Tehran following the substantial allegations of fraud in the re-election of Mr. Ahmadinejad, Mr. Chávez
publicly offered him support. As the regime cracked down on political dissent, jailing, torturing and killing protesters, Venezuela stood with the
Iranian hard-liners.

Meanwhile, Iranian investments in Venezuela have been rising. The two countries have signed various Memoranda of Understanding on technology
development, cooperation on banking and finance, and oil and gas exploration and refining. In April 2008, the two countries also signed a Memorandum
of Understanding pledging full military support and cooperation. United Press International reported in August that Iranian military advisers have
been embedded with Venezuelan troops.

According to a report published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in December of last year, Venezuela has an estimated 50,000 tons of
unmined uranium. There is speculation in the Carnegie report that Venezuela could be mining uranium for Iran.

The Iranians have also opened International Development Bank in Caracas under the Spanish name Banco Internacional de Desarrollo C.A., an independent
subsidiary of Export Development Bank of Iran. Last October the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed economic
sanctions against both of these Iranian banks for providing or attempting to provide financial services to Iran's Ministry of Defense and its Armed
Forces Logistics—the two Iranian military entities tasked with advancing Iran's nuclear ambitions.

My office has been told that that over the past three years a number of Iranian-owned and controlled factories have sprung up in remote and
undeveloped parts of Venezuela—ideal locations for the illicit production of weapons. Evidence of the type of activity conducted inside the
factories is limited. But we should be concerned, especially in light of an incident in December 2008. Turkish authorities detained an Iranian vessel
bound for Venezuela after discovering lab equipment capable of producing explosives packed inside 22 containers marked "tractor parts." The
containers also allegedly contained barrels labeled with "danger" signs. I think it is safe to assume that this was a lucky catch—and that most
often shipments of this kind reach their destination in Venezuela.

The original article states that the T90's would double the number of tanks in the Venezuelan army. However, they announced some time ago that they
would be replacing their current tanks (84 French AMX-30's) by T90's. So this is just Chavez keeping
a promise he made to the only group in the country he can't afford to piss off: his military.

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